Has Schengen Stood the Test of Time? New Challenges for a Borderless Europe, Review of A. Woltjer, ‘Schengen: The Way of No Return?’, 2 MJ (1995), p. 256–278
| Author | Malthe Munkøe |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X1201900303 |
| Published date | 01 September 2012 |
| Date | 01 September 2012 |
| Subject Matter | Article Reviews |
Article Reviews
352 19 MJ 3 (2012)
Has Schengen stood the test of time? New cha llenges for a borderless Europe, Review
of A. Woltjer, ‘Schengen: the Way of no Return?’, 2 MJ (1995), p. 256-278.
Malthe Munkøe*
In his insightf ul article of 1995, Aleidus Woltjer pointed out the chal lenges that the
Schengen-countries faced and conti nue to face. In partic ular, Woltjer noted that the
purely intergovernmental Schengen regime l acked democratic parliamentary oversight,
and that there were worries t hat the abolishment of interna l borders would lead to a
surge of illegal im migration and criminal act ivities.
e instit utional setup of the Schengen area ha s changed funda mentally with t he
Lisbon Treaty, and except on a few speci c issues, Justice a nd Home A airs has been
moved from the intergovernmental th ird pillar to co-de cision. is se ems to have
provided a solution to the criticism th at the policy area was opaque and su ered from a
democratic de cit.
Cross-border immigration a nd crime remain central concern s, however. For example,
in April 2011 France temporarily reintroduced controls on its border to Ita ly, which had
issued temporary perm its to a large number of Tunisian im migrants who then opted to
make their way into France. A nd in May 2011 the Danish centre-right government laid
forward an agreement to ‘reintroduce border control s’ as part of a domestic political de al
on pension reforms. is caused alar m among its European partners, and on ly later was
it made clear that these measu res, despite the heavy-handed language us ed by the Danish
government, would only entail stepping up customs checks to curb trans-border crime
and tra cking1 which would probably not violate the Schengen code.2
In 2012 the Council of Minis ters agreed to a Schengen Governance pol icy package
aimed at strengt hening controls on the ex ternal border. is wil l allow for the
temporary reintroduction of internal border controls if one Member State is seen as
failing to sat isfactorily control immigration, and followed long-standing c oncerns that
some Member States are faili ng to stem the tide of migration across the Mediterr anean.
e Counci l of Ministers decided to use a lega l basis which e ectively bypassed the
European Pa rliament for this dec ision,3 which prompted heated discussions and c alled
* Consultant at Da nsk Erhverv/ e Dani sh Chamber of Commerce, M .Sc., MA.
1 M. Munkøe, ‘ e Debacle over Danish Border Cont rols’, College of Europe Dipl omacy Paper Ser ies
(2012).
2 For example, in a recent c ase the Comm ission decided that t he measures und ertaken by t he Netherlands
of deploying mobile c amera surveilla nce along the border was compat ible with Schengen, becaus e the
system does not have border controls as its objective, but rather aims at curbing smuggling, human
tra ckin g, identity fraud and money launder ing. N. Nielsen, ‘Brussels defend s Dutch border control
project’, EU Observer, 5July 2 012, http://euobserver.com/22/116881 (last visite d 9August 2012).
3 e Com mission originall y based its proposal concerni ng Schengen Governance on Art icle77 of the
Lisbon Treaty concerning policies that are aimed at ensuring the absence of border controls which
requires co-de cision, but the Counc il of Ministe rs instead made u se of Article70 concerni ng conducting
evaluations of EU pol icies which only requires the Eu ropean Parliament and national p arliaments to
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting